That the gp should be more concerned

Glad you have taken it further. The fact the Practice Manager was dismissive is really concerning; there needs to be a constructive review of aspects of this GP surgery to ensure all understand best practice etc.

Hope baby improves soon

Good! Do hope yoyr baby is soon properly on tbe mend.

Agree with the 'significant event' poster too. It was an appalling experience for you and your baby, let's hope significant 'learnings' can happen at your surgery so tbat your reporting can help others, because there will be others in exactly your situation

Well done on taking it further. A good practice manager would be apologetic and be ensuring that practices are reviewed so that this situation doesn’t happen again.

In my surgery, it would be logged as a ‘Significant Event’. It’s not to apportion blame, but to highlight the situation, and to make necessary changes, implement training, new procedures etc to ensure something similar is less likely to occur again. Ie. It’s a learning process to improve standards.

Good for you OP. The Practice Manager should be ashamed of themselves.

@poorlybaby23 ffs what is wrong with people??? I’m glad you’re making a stand about this. Good luck and keep us posted won’t you x

How is baby now OP?

Write a formal letter to the GP making a formal complaint about the receptionist dismissing your 6 month old child's illness as "just a virus" with no medical qualifications whatsoever.

This is really serious particularly as some of the symptoms you describe could indicate septicaemia! Truly shocking and they need to know and do something about it urgently.

Glad that you are able to go home and baby is on the mend. Hope the cough clears up soon.

@Skybluepinky
that's not the point of the thread though. OP did ring GP. Receptionist didn't only refuse a GP appointment but advised that, since it sounds viral, no treatment should be thought. This was totally out of order. If no GP appointment, she should have pointed out to OP to contact 111 or A&E but instead advised specifically that the virus does not warrant doctors time. Luckily Op ignored it but there are people out there who would have thought they waste NHS time in seeking a further assessment. The receptionist was bang out of order.

with those symptoms I wouldn’t have bothered with GP straight to A&E.

Glad baby is improving and wishing you all well.

OP posted four days ago. Do you imagine she has been dithering about this all that time?

I'm like you, I second, (third, fourth...and on) guess myself. I'm glad you listened to your gut and the people on here that told you to go. Obviously the right call since you were admitted.

Haven't rtt but I'm guessing others have advised you to complain / feedback to the gp practice. Please do. Receptionists like that need to be trained. Someone who sat back and waited after being told "it's just viral" might be facing a very different situation.

Go to A andE follow your mummy’s instincts .You know your baby .Some A and Es get you seen quicker if a young baby Virus,s can quickly change tibinfrction Your little one wil get dehydrated Go now

Don’t even waste time with GP ring 111 and they will advise. My daughter did this for her poorly 3 year old and then as her daughter deteriorated I the space of an hour rang 999 - they blue lighted her to hospital within 10 minutes . She also worried it wasn’t serious enough to begin with. Admitted overnight and intravenous steroids for sever croup - cane on over a couple of hours. Always follow your instincts and either grab the baby and go to A&E or 999. Kids go down super fast . I get that GP’s are overworked and the receptionist acts as triage but they shouldn’t and the practice should be held to account and have clear guidelines for sick infants, especially one so young . Complain away.

Go with your baby to the nearest emergency walk in centre. That's disgusting of the GP secretary. I nearly died as had a serious soft tissue infection and got fobbed off by the GP secretary then spent 2 weeks in A and E and was told I was 12 hours from death. You know your baby best x

The GPs cause the problems by using the receptionists as a gateway to appointments. The message you get when you call our practice says “one of our trained care navigation team will ask for a brief description of your problem”. If I really want an appointment these days, I make my problem sound dire, so I can’t be fobbed off.

These fucking receptionists should just do their job and stop getting bloody notions above their station.
They are there to book appointments, not diagnose or decide medical issues.
It happened ONCE in a clinic in the town I live in and she lost her job over it. She decided that the child couldn't possibly be seen and the kiddy ended up being admitted by the out of hours doc. Mother made a complaint over the rude obnoxious know all receptionist and she was let go.
Damn right too

@poorlybaby23 every time I called GP about a baby or young child, they always found time to see us same day. I always called in the first half of the day; I don't know what they would have said later on in the day. I'm surprised the receptionist told you they wouldn't see your baby; that was never my experience.

I've found 111 v helpful in the past; every time we called about a child they told us where to go so that the child would be seen.

Glad baby is getting care now

Also my mum's friend's 90 year old mum died because her GP surgery refused to see her for 'just a cough' even though she could barely move with exhaustion and was struggling to breathe. Turned out to be pneumonia, and by the time they called an ambulance it was too late :-( Always trust your gut.

Glad to hear you're in the right place. My GP no matter how busy they are will always put young babies on their list given how quickly they can deteriorate, and the receptionist and doctors have told me never to worry about wasting their time. That's how it should be everywhere, particularly with a lethargic baby that won't feed. Do complain. Hope baby gets better soon.

I have RTFT and know the baby has been admitted. Hope he is making a speedy recovery and home soon.

But - to those who say “call 111, don’t go to A&E with a 6 month old”. I understand where you’re coming from, but if you’re really worried - just go to A&E. If the baby needs urgent medical attention, you won’t hang around with them for hours. You’ll be triaged straight through.

In theory, running it past 111 is a good idea and it worked well for us on the occasions when the service wasn’t very busy. But one particular time we waited 8 hours for a doctor to call back, and our son’s respiratory rate was over 60. I told the call handler this, but it isn’t one of the screening questions and it made no difference to the speed of response. Turns out - it should have. When we did get a call back, an ambulance was sent right away and we were blue lighted to hospital. The ambulance crew were horrified to hear it had taken that long to call us back. I’ve since done my research and at that respiratory rate we’d now be in the car and on our way to A&E straight away.

Thank God you followed your maternal instincts and took your little one to A+E, OP, and I hope that they're feeling very better, very soon.

Definitely lodge a complaint. All this "oh, it's probably just viral, so don't waste our busy doctor's time" bullshit is dangerous. As others have said, the receptionist has no right to start triaging patients because she's not a medical professional (being a first aider doesn't count as one, either, though I've met some who clearly think that it elevates them to the same level as nurses or GPs).

I was talking to my father this morning, who told me an absolute horror story - but it explains why things like this, especially with a baby, can be so fucking dangerous. A friend of his had a grandchild born 3 months ago, normal delivery, discharged, everything was fine. Their mother knew that something wasn't right with the baby (not her first child, so she had that for comparison). She took them to the GP. "Oh, it's probably just a virus". Mum took the baby home, but she wasn't happy. Back to another GP. "Probably just viral". Mum took the baby home again. Still knowing that something wasn't right. This went on for a few more weeks, until Mum took the baby to A+E, last week - 3 months old, so 12 weeks of life beyond their mother's womb. Mum explained to them that she kept getting fobbed off with "it's probably just a virus" comments, but that she knew something wasn't right. The baby was admitted for tests/observations "just in case".

She died the next day from sepsis.

Her parents absolutely did the right thing by their baby - it was the GPs who failed them. But now there's a family grieving the loss of a baby who it was apparently very clear that there was something (I don't know what, it's not the sort of thing you can ask a grief-stricken grandparent, is it?) burbling away that wasn't a fucking virus!

Mother's intuition is there for a reason. Babies and young children absolutely cannot adequately tell us how they feel. I remember my son having a migraine and when asked what hurt, as a 3 year old, he pointed to his knee, for example. Why did it take the friend's daughter so long to go to A+E? No clue, but probably because it's been drummed into us not to "take up valuable resources" there, especially during the winter (colds/flu season) - and I absolutely understand that if the child can communicate or its an adult with a stubbed toe. But with babies and toddlers...? Nope. Trust your instincts, always, because at the end of the day - who knows your baby better than the woman who grew it/is probably the primary caregiver nine times out of ten...?

Please complain to your CCG directly. Ensure you get a written discharge summary from the ward.
Keep a diary .
You've said you don't want a witch hunt be clear what you do want or what you expected to happen and explain why.
Some surgeries the 'receptionists ' are actually something called care navigators and have extra training, ask if yours is one of these, if she is request she receives refresher training and the role is taken away from her until completed. If she isn't suggest she be allowed to do this (if she wants) because she is making decisions she is not qualified for.